The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A “service processor” (SP) or a “baseboard management controller” (BMC) refer to a specialized microcontroller that manages the interface between system management software and platform hardware. The BMC can be embedded on the motherboard of a computer, generally a server. For example, different types of sensors can be built into the computer system, and the BMC reads these sensors to obtain parameters such as temperature, cooling fan speeds, power status, operating system (OS) status, etc. The BMC monitors the sensors and can send alerts to a system administrator via the network if any of the parameters do not stay within preset limits, indicating a potential failure of the system. The administrator can also remotely communicate with the BMC to take some corrective action such as resetting or power cycling the system to get a hung OS running again.
Generally, the BMC may include a non-volatile memory, such as a flash memory, for storing the BMC firmware. Contents stored in the BMC memory chip can be rewritten without removing it from the motherboard, allowing the BMC firmware software to be upgraded in place. The rewriting process of the BMC firmware is generally referred to as flashing the BMC. In a client-server system, the BMC on a host computer may be flashed remotely from a client. However, when flashing the BMC remotely from a client, the flashing procedure is driven by the client side. If, for any reason, the client fails in the process of flashing the BMC, the BMC will lose its critical information, including the configuration information of the BMC.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need still exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.